I'm happy to say that I quite enjoyed this volume of work by Jane. I'm a big fan of marriage of convenience-turned to love books and this was just what I hoped.
Mary and John were pushed together by their parents, being the youngest siblings with little to offer, and thought to be a great match. Although they got along in the beginning of their relationship, soon after their marriage, John was sent away by his job for a couple of years. Upon his return, he and Mary discover they have grown into different people and aren't sure how to behave around one another.
Mary was an interesting character for me. Only because they were parts of her I liked and parts of her disliked. I love how she expressed herself and her perception of others through drawing. I liked that she was supportive of John in everything that he did however there were times where she felt to meddlesome and annoying. I have a hard time understanding a person who would constantly berate their spouse to know what's going on with their job when they know that they deal with sensitive information.
I liked that John was not the stereotypical drop dead gorgeous hero. He was rather average, as was his job, and his strives to be taken seriously and to make a difference allowed him to not fall into the box of cliché regency male lead.
I feel like the plot was pretty original. Some of the issues and themes throughout the book are not necessarily some that we always see in literature set in this time period.
Overall it was a good and easy read!